Sunday, June 26, 2016

Maps of the Week

Choice and Chance is an impressive and harrowing mapped visualization recounting the events of June 12 in the Pulse nightclub. The visualization uses a 3d map of the nightclub to illustrate a number of first-hand eye witness accounts of Omar Mateen's murder of killed 49 innocent people.

At the heart of this interactive report is a three.js powered 3d map of the Pulse nightclub. The 3d model of the nightclub is used as the backdrop to a narrative account of some of the events that happened after Omar Mateen entered the club. As you progress through the narrative the 3d map rotates and zooms to explore some of the first-hand accounts of the harrowing events which took place that night.

The eye witness accounts and the realism of the 3d map of the club make this visualization particularly upsetting. The use of different colored
lighting effects adds even more realism to this retelling of the nightmarish events that took place in the Pulse nightclub on June 12th.

In the middle of the Twentieth Century new highways were driven through a large number of American cities, ruining the character of many
neighborhoods for ever.

The Institute for Quality Communities at the University of Oklahoma has put together a series of historical and modern aerial images to show the
impact of mid-Twentieth Century urban renewal on American cities. 60 Years of Urban Change allows you to compare historical aerial images of a number of America's biggest cities with aerial imagery of the same areas, showing how they look today.

By comparing the modern and historical aerial imagery it is possible to see the impact of the mid-century construction boom on many of these
cities. New highways, parking lots, housing projects and mega-structures were built at the expense of small lots of integrated streets and tight
communities.

You can now create a little Street View based movie showing your house being destroyed by aliens. A new website, promoting the release of the new Independence Day movie, allows you to view your house on Google Maps Street View, after it has been destroyed by an invading army of aliens.

Just enter your address into Independence Day - My Street and you can view a little Street View scene showing the alien inflicted destruction at your address. Pan around the Street View scene and you can see fires burning, smoke rising and darkened skies. Look up and you might also spot a fleet of UFO's flying around overhead.

This amazing Street View interactive is possible because of Google's undocumented Street View depth library, You can make use of this depth
data in Street View yourself with the GSVPanoDepth library, developed by 0xef.